Quote Originally Posted by steadyeddy View Post
I would have to disagree Mr Brightside, Coe trained for events lasting either 1:4X mins or 3:3Xmins, massively different from the 15mins or so a Bofra is usually won in. Even when considering the downhill it still means 10mins of 'effort' running which is far closer to 5km as an equivalent. If you look at any half decent 5km runner they will be doing no less than 70-80mpw with most world class runners nearing 120mpw if not more. Aerobic development is unavoidable and there is no better way of attaining this than easy/steady miles ala Lydiard, infact most 1500m will do a fair distance and i'm sure Coe regularly went well over race distance. If you have a search this a good documentary on him on youtube. A good website for reference is www.runnerslife.co.uk it has a number of international runners from various event who post training and gives a great insight into exactly what they do week in week out.
It is believed the poor period of distance runners we appear to have just come out of is due to a theosophy of low mileage, back in the 80's (Golden Era) it was well accepted there were no short cuts and 100mpw was the norm.
According to an interview Said Aouita never ran further than 16km in training but in my estimation is the best 5000m runner ever. He used training methods that meant he didn't have to churn out 120mpw. Yes he was gifted in terms of having a body built for running fast but it was his methods that made him excel.

It is too easy to put Britain's present/past poor results down to a lack of mileage as I've shown with my example.